422: Winning the Audition (complete)

In addition to today’s “best of” podcast, check out my book Winning the Audition! It’s available in paperback, Kindle, enhanced PDF, and audiobook formats.

This series is drawn from interviews conducted with dozens of bassists from orchestras like the Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, National Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, and Houston Symphony, plus some of the most influential pedagogues in the field.

This series provides actionable advice that you can use to take your auditioning to the next level, and while we’re speaking with bassists for these episodes, the advice can certainly be applied to other instruments and disciplines as well.

This series is divided into four episodes:

These episodes include advice from dozens of major figures in the bass world, including Lawrence Hurst, Michael Hovnanian, Ranaan Meyer, Ian Hallas, Brandon Mclean, Robin Kesselman, Ira Gold, Max Dimoff, Jack Budrow, Andrew Anderson, Rob Kassinger, Peter Tambroni, Greg Sarchet, Andrew Raciti, Marc Ramírez, Gaelen McCormick, Joseph Conyers, Colin Corner, Ju-Fang Liu, Jeffrey Turner, Owen Lee, Brad Opland, and Alex Hanna.

Our original sponsor for this series is Discover Double Bass. This site is run by Geoff Chalmers and provides lessons and step-by-step courses on a variety of double bass areas of study. They’ve got free articles, string reviews and a show called Ask Geoff and Lauren where they answer questions from the double bass community. Geoff does great work and has built this into a tremendous resource for bassists everywhere. Check out over 70 free lessons and much more at discoverdoublebass.com!Continue Reading …

421: Bert Turetzky (from the archives)

Photo credit: snapshotsfoundation.com

This “best of” episode features double bassist and contemporary music pioneer Bert Turetzky. Enjoy, and check out the original episode from 2016 here.

About Bert Turetzky

Bertram Turetzky has been a distinguished clinician and pedagogue for over three decades, giving master classes, seminars, and workshops nationally and internationally. His knowledge of repertoire, performance style, and his unique approach to technical, psychological, and physical problems has made him a highly sought-after teacher. His master classes have been referred to as “life-altering.”

Turetzky has been a featured contrabass soloist in the music centers of the United States, Europe, Latin America and Australia. The response to his many concerts, recordings, lectures, writings and his unique sonic vocabulary has taken the contrabass from it’s traditional role to assume the position of a major solo instrument. More than 300 compositions have been written for, performed by, and recorded by Turetzky, making him one of the few performers, in all of music history, to have created a large and impressive repertoire of music for his instrument.

He is is a prolific recording artist and has recorded for Nonesuch, Finnador, Son Nova, Desto, Music and Art, Incus, 9 winds, Advance, Vanguard, New World, and others as soloist, improvisor, chamber player, Jazz player, orchestra player, and Klezmer artist. He is also an acclaimed scholar/researcher in the fields of Jazz History, 18th Century Chamber Music and the author of many reviews, articles and the now classic book “The Contemporary Contrabass.”

After the success of his book, Turetzky was named co-editor of “The New Instrumentation Series” [UC Press]. He is also a published composer, editor, transcriber and arranger of music for his instrument. His compositions are published, reviewed and recorded. Turetzky has also received many awards for composition from ASCAP plus grants from the NEA and Meet the Composer as well as many commissions.

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Halloween Special: The Curse of the Dittersdorf starring James VanDemark

Can a piece of music be cursed?

After hearing this tale of repeatedly bizarre circumstances surrounding James VanDemark‘s repeated Dittersdorf Concerto performances, you’ll be asking that same question!

A big thank you to James for his idea for this episode, and be sure to check out James’ past podcast appearance for more about his career as a double bass performer and teacher.

419: Andrés Martín (from the archives)

This “best of” episode features composer, teacher, and bassist Andrés Martín. Enjoy, and check out the original episode from 2016 here.

About Andrés Martín

Native of Buenos Aires, Argentina, bassist, arranger, and composer Andrés Martín has performed with orchestras and chamber ensembles in Argentina, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, England, Germany and United States. Since his arrival in Tijuana (Mexico), Andrés has been immersed in teaching as well as performing as a soloist and chamber musician. He is a member of the “Orquesta de Baja California” and “Cuatro para Tango”, a chamber ensemble with whom he has released four recordings.

He also organizes and directs Contrabajos de Baja California A.C., a Double Bass academy who celebrates an international double bass festival and chamber music course held in Tijuana every summer. As a composer and arranger, he works with a wide language which ranges from contemporary techniques to tango and rock. His work has been performed and recorded by very successful orchestras, ensembles, and soloists in Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Netherlands, Japan and the United States.Continue Reading …

418: Gene Perla on Elvin Jones, Broadway, and the business of music

In addition to being a bassist and working with artists like Elvin Jones and Miles Davis, Gene Perla is a composer, arranger, orchestrator, band leader, manager, booking agent, music publisher, record company executive, producer, Broadway sound designer, and much more.

Gene and I engage in a delightful and insightful conversation about how the music business has changed and where it’s headed.

More About Gene:

Gene Perla was raised in New Jersey where he studied classical piano and trombone. After attending Berklee School of Music he moved to New York and began his musical career as a jazz bassist. He has performed and/or recorded with Chick Corea, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman, Elvin Jones, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, Chuck Mangione, Joni Mitchell, Buddy Rich, Sonny Rollins, Nina Simone, Frank Sinatra, Stone Alliance, Sarah Vaughan, Nancy Wilson, and others.Continue Reading …